THE WOODLANDS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--McKesson
Specialty Health has received approval from the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) to participate in the Merit-Based Incentive
Payment System (MIPS) 2018 program year as a Qualified Clinical Data
Registry (QCDR). This is the second consecutive year the company has
earned QCDR designation. As a CMS-approved QCDR, McKesson can collect
and report clinical data on behalf of clinicians through its
industry-leading oncology-specific electronic health record (EHR), iKnowMed℠,
for both MIPS and custom non-MIPS quality measures to drive improvements
in quality and cost of cancer care. The designation enables iKnowMed
users to efficiently submit data directly to CMS without engaging a
separate registry vendor, streamlining data submission and minimizing
the need for additional administrative resources. Additionally, iKnowMed
was recently ONC-ACB 2015 Edition Certified, which means the EHR is
“Advancing Care Information-ready” to support practices participating in
value-based care, making providers using iKnowMed eligible for 10 MIPS
bonus points by using the 2015 Edition exclusively.

For the 2018 reporting year, McKesson’s QCDR will be able to support all
three critical MIPS practice-reported categories: Quality, Advancing
Care Information and Improvement Activities. iKnowMed users will also
have access to several custom QCDR measures identified by physician
leaders in The
US Oncology Network and endorsed by the organization’s Steering
Committee, all of whom have deep insight into value-based care and
community oncology clinical and business operations. These customized
measures may be more appropriate for some practices than other MIPS
measures, helping them maximize their MIPS scores. Since the MIPS cost
category is calculated based on CMS claims data, there is nothing more
for practices to report.

“Data reporting of quality measures is a major challenge for many of the
community oncology practices we serve,” said Erin Crum, director of
Quality Reporting, McKesson Specialty Health. “QCDR designation enables
practices using iKnowMed to efficiently report their MIPS quality
measures simply by utilizing the data already captured in iKnowMed,
streamlining this complex process and easing the administrative burden
of reporting. Our ability to create and support additional non-MIPS
measures is an added bonus for practices, as it gives physicians the
opportunity to report on measures they feel are clinically relevant to
the way they practice medicine.”

With McKesson as a QCDR, iKnowMed users gain a wealth of benefits to
help them optimize MIPS performance, including:

“Helping community oncology practices thrive in the evolving value-based
care environment is a top priority for us,” said Marcus Neubauer, MD,
vice president and medical director, Payer and Clinical Services,
McKesson Specialty Health. “While MIPS presents significant challenges
for practices, our expertise with alternative payment models has enabled
us to develop many innovative solutions that empower practices to
succeed with MIPS and other value-based initiatives.”

About McKesson Specialty Health

McKesson Specialty Health, a division of McKesson Corporation, works
together with stakeholders across the healthcare delivery system to
preserve and strengthen specialty care, passionately driven by the
benefits it provides patients and the system as a whole. Through
innovative provider, practice management, biopharma and payer solutions,
McKesson Specialty Health focuses on improving the financial,
operational and business health of our customers and partners so they
may provide the best care to patients. At McKesson Specialty Health, we
believe that we are all in this together. For more information, visit www.mckessonspecialtyhealth.com.